Qi

Hello - I keep seeing references here to the "qi" of tea. I think "qi" must be the same thing as the "ki" in akido, but I'm not sure of that or exactly how it applies to tea. Anyone want to help me understand?

Thanks, Adam and Victoria. From what you've said, I think qi explains my experience with my houjicha. One brutal Saturday that drained me physically and mentally, I came home and immediately made the pot of houjicha my mind was crying out for. Within five minutes of beginning to drink it, I felt a sense of well being spread over me. I'd noticed this before in a smaller way, but that day, the contrast of the experience with the day was so pronounced, it has now become one of the several reasons I drink houjicha every day. One interesting thing about this is that the feeling I am talking about has nothing to do with caffeine.

Qi can have many meanings. The air, the oxygen, the steam from hot water, being angry, being spiritual, being agile... can all be called some kind of Qi. The problem of using Qi to describe tea is abstractness, without specific criteria or benchmark. When different people claim Qi in the same tea, how can we know they are talking about the same thing? The hot liquor, strong taste, or momentary feeling? Of course it can be used to describe tea, but very often, such description is not more specific than saying the tea has zen in it or the tea has a world in it. Oh well I know my problem is being too analytical-minded and terribly anti-romantic